Because of Him
by Camy-Tay
Summary: Some families are made from love, some from hate, others from power. But what breaks them? Their weaknesses.
1. Chapter 1

Sakura Haruno was an obsession, Sasuke realized, listening to her at a club. He had been back in Konoha for awhile now, and recently turned the age of nineteen.

Every night after a mission, Sakura was told to sing at the only club in Konoha, and everyone got to pick songs for her. He remembered the recent conversation she had with the godaime about it, happening just hours ago.

_"TSUNADE!" Sakura whined, getting reassigned right after they handed in their report. "I don't want to sing!"_

_"But the club needs your entertainment. Please?" she replied._

Sometime while Sasuke was gone, Sakura had come out as a singer, and a good one at that. It was when he was looking for Itachi that he came across her brother, who made him learn more about his obsession.

Her brother, Yasha, had killed their father when Sakura was six, and made her watch him do it. But instead of being scared for her life next like he had been, she ran to her father and tried to save him using her element--sound. She was a true sound master, while the Haruno were merely elemental masters. Sakura was the prodigy, with all the elements.

_"How about we only let people chose songs for the first two hours? That way you can sing what you want for most of the night," Tsunade offered._

Tiredly, Sakura had nodded. When they got outside, Sai and Naruto decided to go to Ichiraku, as Hinata was there with Naruto and her kid. Sakura sighed--as much as she wanted to see her niece, she wanted to go home more. Sasuke offered to walk with her, seeing as his house was so close by.

But on their way, they came across her brother.

"Imouto."

"Aniki."

"Have you gotten stronger yet?" he asked, following them as they kept walking past him. Sasuke was shocked. Here was the guy that killed her father, made her watch, could have killed her too, joined the Akatsuki, and was completely fine with it?

"You mean, stronger than an ass? Yeah. Kind of did that when I tried to save a life you were killing. How've you been? Itachi-niichan's dead now. Are you with Kisame-niichan instead?" she asked, apathetic.

How the hell did Sakura know Itachi? Then he remembered--Itachi and Yasha were friends growing up.

But then Sakura surprised him.

"Thank you, though. For shutting me out. If it weren't for you leaving me and making me feel useless, I probably wouldn't have become who I was."

"Really? A weak kunoichi who--"

"Yeah. Ashamed. Ashamed of having power, but not able to use it. Ashamed to be a Haruno...Just ashamed. You refused to let me in, and so I shut myself out. If it weren't for you and other people pushing me away, I wouldn't have become what I am. Unafraid."

Sasuke froze and looked at Sakura. Suddenly, Yasha's head was severed and blood splattered Sakura's face as it stayed frozen, if not maybe her eyes blinked. Silently, she wiped the blood off of her kunai, sliding it back into her holster.

Suddenly, he heard her starting to cry. Immediately he went to comfort her, hugging her close. "Shh. It's all right. It's okay," he reassured. "I'm here, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

After a few minutes past with him saying comforting words, she left, making him feel cold. She meant him too, he knew. But was she really thankful, or hated so deeply he'd never get to tell her he loved her ever again?

* * *

"It won't fade away," Sakura sang, ending "Kimi no namae," or "Your Name" by Savage Genius, hopefully her last song to sing by request for the night. However, next on came one that she'd have to kill Sai for later.

Sasuke watched, amused, as Sai placed in a band called Lords of Acid, then watching Sakura strip to her mesh-top with her chest filled-in, and her short undershorts.

Was it just him, or were more people thinking nasty thoughts about his love? Now all he had to do was tell her he loved her too.

The painter-nin smirked when he watched the Uchiha fidget. Making Sakura sing "Slave to Love" was just something he liked to do. Maybe sooner or later Sasuke would crack and just go with her.

After "Slave to Love" was "SHINDERERA," or "Cinderella" by Imai Maki, and then "Kimi no tame ni," or "For Your Sake" by Sakura. Finally, Tsunade announced she would sing songs she herself enjoyed. Now the Cherry Blossom had to think.

She enjoyed the type of music that hit her, struck her core. What she got, was the painful memories of being shut out and hurt. Then it hit her.

"Take me," she started, "and let me in, don't break me and shut me out."

As she sang Papa Roach's "Take Me," something hit Sasuke. She was in pain, she was hurt, but she wasn't going to let it get to her. She wanted to be loved, and she wanted to stop being pushed away.

Next came "Scars" and then came a more depressing song that made Sasuke wish he never even met Sakura, never met Yasha.

"Today I saw my hero fall apart,  
The one who taught me to be strong,  
On the outside I look fine,  
But on the inside I am dying  
My strength has overcome my pain  
My love for you remains the same  
The loneliness is setting in  
I have no one to free my sins

"It's never too late to live your life,  
The time is now, it's do or die  
It's never too late to live your life,  
The time is now, it's yours or mine," she started to sing.

As the night went on, it was like a Papa Roach concert, singing "Not Listening" before going onto different songs, including "Friend or Foe" by t.A.T.u and then "Liez" by the TRAX. She sang other songs until ending the night with the song "HitotsuUnmei Kyoudoutai" by POM.

* * *

"Sasuke, guess what?" Naruto yelled the next night. "We're throwing you a party for your bithday!"

"Should I keep guessing?" Sasuke asked. "Why am I having a party, anyways?"

"Cause we finally got Sakura agree to sing at it!" he replied, smiling. "It's going to be at the club, and we rented the place out, and it's going to be all people you know, and..." He took a deep gasping breath, having said everything in one.

As Sasuke walked away from Naruto, he spotted Sakura sitting on the bridge-rail, looking down at the bridge. She seemed depressed, and so he sat down next to her.

Sakura didn't speak, didn't greet anyone, and didn't yell at Kakashi for being late once again.

Eventually, though, she did speak. "Yasha saved me...that day he killed my dad. I didn't see it like that before." She went back to training for a few seconds. Sasuke was shocked she even spoke to him. "He told me he met you, said about the past."

He nodded. "You were a prodigy. You're at the same height as Neji and me. Why don't you let anyone else know? How could he have saved you?"

The stopped training, and silently snuck off to another clearing, one Kiba and Sakura had made training together when they were sixteen. Her mother had remarried Kiba's father when she was fourteen. They took seats on the floor, and watched the clouds.

"My dad? He hit my mom a lot," she started. "Every time he got mad, he'd hit her, and she'd cry and tell him to stop. Every time, she'd ask me to heal her, then Dad would just keep at it. I knew he'd hurt Yasha too. I just...didn't know what or how he did it, or even why. I'd just run and get out of the house, cover my ears and cry."

Sasuke looked over at her and it was like seeing a six year old again. Her hair was pulled up in a red ribbon, and he was shocked at how mean all those bratty girls were to such a pretty girl. He thought she was the cutest little thing he'd ever met.

"Then on my birthday no one showed up to my party. My dad was mad, saying I was an ugly asshole and that was why I had no friends. Yasha and I loved each other--I'd do anything for him, and he'd do anything for me. He yelled at my dad for yelling at me, and it got physical again.

"Dad sent Yasha into a hospital, and I didn't see him for weeks--he'd beat on my mother whenever I asked to. The day Yasha got back, he told me to pack all of my stuff, that we were moving out and he'd find some way to bring Mom eventually."

Wiping a tear from her eyes, she looked down, and Sasuke was shocked. He got up and hugged her, hoping all of his emotions were conveyed it that one embrace.

How could he have never been kind to her? After everything she went through behind closed doors, and everything he saw, why did he have to be so mean to her as well? Why couldn't he have been a decent human being?

Because he was shit, he decided. He was a shit that never even deserved to know someone like her.

"He found us in my room, getting everything together. And he slapped my face. He never hit me before. Yasha started to fight with dad, and I just froze on the ground, watching. How was it that I was so weak I couldn't defend myself? Or help a special person?

"Yasha got knocked down and started to go unconscious. That's when dad came at me. I put up a fight. there was no way anyone could say I didn't try. I was just...a weak person. And he beat me...

"When I came to, Yasha and he were fighting again, but Yasha was winning. I was going to run, but Yasha said not to. He started to kill Dad, and I was begging him to stop, saying things would get better, just not to hurt him anymore. It was like I could see Dad changing in his eyes. I could see the guy Mom told me she married.

"Then Yasha gave him his chance for his final words. 'Don't hurt my daughter. I'm sorry I hurt her, and your mother, but don't you dare be like me,' he said. Then he looked at me and told me his last words. 'Thank you.' Like I did something! Yasha snapped his neck, and I knew, I had to save my dad. For the first time in years, my dad was back in that body. And Yasha killed him.

"That day, Yasha told me if I didn't get stronger to never go after him. And he left, I went to stop him at the gates--the same I did for you--and he just laughed in my face and walked away. He hit me though. Tsunade was my doctor then, too. She said I lost my sound-element, and I may never get it back."

"But I heard you use it!" Sasuke protested.

"I got it back."

They sat in silence, watching the day pass away.

"Mom helped a lot," she told him, surprising him after all the time that passed.

When he saw he was still hugging her, he let go, blushing. "What do you mean?"

"She helped me a lot. Always told me to be happy that this happened, that happened. Everything. She made me a happier person. But I always knew, if I were just stronger, I could've saved Dad. I never told her, but I almost brought him back. I could feel his life on my fingertips, and then it went away."

He sighed. "Because that's a forbidden jutsu, Sakura. You'd never be able to bring him back from the dead like that."

Shaking her head with a grimace, she looked back to where they were supposed to be training. "Only if they're dead. I had to learn the rules for a lesson once, and that's how I knew I could. The soul and the life are two separate parts. His soul happened to have left him, but came back. That meant he was alive. A very thin and debatable technicality, but I was desperate.

"I had his life on the cusp, and then it died. When a life dies, the soul goes whacky in the body. As it ended, I got my dad's soul, so now I have two. That's really what got me through. Knowing that a part of my dad, literally lived inside of me."

Sasuke snorted and hugged her again. "Forget being stronger, Sakura. You are the strongest person I know. I love you. And he was thanking you just for trying. He knew you--you'd try and save him."

Sakura sniffled, wiping her eyes. Sasuke loved her. It was the only thought she had right then. Nothing else seemed to matter.

"He said thank you for the same reason I did," he told her, making her pay attention to his words.

"What? Why?" she asked, shocked. So his last words did have a meaning!

"Because I knew, even if I was gone, you wouldn't stop--stop thinking about me, stop loving me, stop caring for me. You'd still be the same Sakura I loved as a child and you'd try anything to bring me back.

"And in all sense of the matter, you brought your dad back too. You brought a piece of him back into the world, when it could have very well perished with his life. That's why he said thank you."

For some reason, a feeling of contentment washed over Sakura. She had never felt something like this before, but as the Uchiha leaned in and kissed her, she knew she'd always feel it forever after, and he had given it to her when he gave her peace in her past.

* * *

"Happy birthday, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said, jumping into the first song. It was the night after they ditched training, and Sakura was extremely happy.

Who wouldn't be? She had the boy she loved more than anything, and because of him she finally came to terms with herself. Things were pretty damn good for her.

After what seemed like hours of listening to Sakura sing, they all sat done to eat. Sasuke had watched Naruto make the seating arrangements, and made sure he put Sakura right next to him.

Tapping on his glass, everyone silenced to listen to the Uchiha. He stood and cleared his throat.

"I want to thank all of you for coming tonight. I know this evening is supposed to be about me," he started, "but it's really about another as well. When I was still a giant ass, just before I left and betrayed this beautiful village, there was someone there that I never gave credit to."

He pulled Sakura up from her seat and everyone started to whisper. Even Sakura was a bit shocked at Sasuke. What was he doing?

"Sakura Haruno, this girl right here, had kept me sane, gave me light and hope, even stayed by my side when I treated her like she was dirt. And now, I know there was something I never got to for her that I think I should do now."

Silently, he got on one knee, and she looked at him shocked. What was he doing? he couldn't be...no, he couldn't. But what if...Even so...

He cleared his throat and everyone silenced, bringing Sakura's thoughts back to the real. He took her hand and looked at her straight in the eye. He smiled shakily, but surely.

Oh Kami-sama! He was!

"Sakura, you brought your father back through his soul. While my soul ran away when my clan was murdered, somehow you brought it back. I never even realized, you have my soul as well, and I wish I could give you more. Will you marry me? I promise to alwa--"

He was cut off by Sakura pulling him up and kissing him, adding her tongue in time. When they finally broke apart, his heart soared.

"Yes. Yes, yes, yes!" she told him before he kissed her again, taking a box out of his pocket and showing her a beautiful diamond engagement ring, slipping it onto her finger.

"This is perfect," she whispered to him as they sat back down for dinner.

He smiled. "And it'll keep getting better, too."


	2. Attention Fans

Hello,

This is not the writer you know as Camy-Tay. This is her brother, Jae, and I regret to inform you that she will no longer be able to write stories for you. November 18 of 2009, we received word that Cam had cancer. We caught it during her check-up after having the tapeworm removed, but we had not caught it in time.

April 17, 2010, Cam passed away from leukemia.

It has taken me almost a year to figure out her password to tell everyone what has happened. I am sorry for all of you that expected updates. I don't know why she ever made her password the mascot of the first boarding school she attended, but whatever. I loved her, but she was weird.

That being said, I know nothing about , except that Cam wrote on this website and she would want her followers to know she passed. I think they receive updates on her every entry, but I will try to post this letter at the end of every story she's written.

I will keep her page up and try to have her friends write stories in her memory so that she may live on, but I haven't talked to many of them since her funeral.

I'm sorry and God bless Cam. May she be in good hands.


End file.
